More than 200 businessmen and professionals from the productive fabric of Castile-La Mancha gathered in a new edition of the Export your valuable forum. A space for exchanging experiences around internationalization, organized by Globalcaja and “La Tribuna”, which brought together Juan Manuel Gonzalez Sernafounder of the Siro Group and president of the González Serna Urbán Foundation.
Attendees also had the opportunity to experience first-hand the success stories of companies such as RES, Sáez Ortega and Pinturas Adoral.
The general director of Globalcaja, Pedro Palacios, was responsible for opening this forum. He thus thanked the speakers, on behalf of the president of the entity, Mariano León, and on his own behalf, for their generosity in sharing their business experiences and emphasizing the need for transformation.
Palacios explained that in times of uncertainty like the one we are experiencing, all businessmen have the same concerns. “We are experiencing one of the great revolutions of humanity, the revolution of knowledge; Collective intelligence is emerging and technology allows us this sharing that moves us forward,” reflected Pedro Palacios, for whom it is essential to face this era of change, through transformation.
“The transformation is not voluntary, it is necessary,” said the general director of Globalcaja, who insisted that this transformation “must be carried out by people and it is better that we do it all together, one process in which you will always be close to us.” of Globalcaja”, he underlined.
Aware that transformation requires strategic planning, Pedro Palacios encouraged everyone present “to write the roadmap, to define the next steps that will allow us to place our company where we want.”
At this point, the Managing Director of Globalcaja highlighted that if he has learned anything from the 30 speakers who have participated so far in this Export Your Value Forum, it is that “they have all combined the low beams and the high beams, that is to say they managed the daily life and, at the same time, they were able to visualize the future of their company, define their strategic plan and be able to internationalize and look outwards to know what was happening in the market.
In this sense, Pedro Palacios invited those present to maintain “active listening”, because “often the solution can be closer than it seems, being close to our customers and listening to their needs, in many occasions , can help us reach the solution.
Honesty, commitment and effort
After the welcome from the general director of Globalcaja, Juan Manuel González Serna explained to the audience his business journey and some of the many lessons learned, since in 1991 he acquired a company that had debts, until the transform into the Siro Group, going from 85 to 5,000 workers and with an industrial presence in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, England and the United States.
The founder of the Siro Group, today Cerealto, originally from La Mancha, reflected through his personal experiences on the complexity of achieving generational change in family businesses; also the importance of learning from failure and relying on financial entities “who trust their word, who understand honesty, values and effort”.
González Serna insisted that in the business world, “what matters is people, you have to hire people for their talent and fire them for their disposition,” he said, referring to the complexity of building a corporate culture, especially in large companies with a head office. in different countries. “During these 30 years, we have acquired family and multinational companies 11 times and the biggest challenge has always been creating a common culture,” he stressed.
González Serna did not want to miss the opportunity to advocate for the professional inclusion of people with different abilities, since, as he pointed out, 8% of the working age population suffers from a disability.
“This should be a challenge that we all take on, especially business people who have values; But I insist, I am not talking about charity, but about a profitable social commitment, because if it is not profitable, it is not sustainable”, insisted the businessman, that he ended up defining as “the biggest and best project I have carried out in my life” the creation of an adapted factory where 90% of the staff were made up of disabled people.
Already far from the daily management of the Siro Group, of which he remains a 25% co-owner, González Serna, with his wife Lucía Urbán, manages the González Serna Urbán Foundation from which they address different lines of action, since the formation of Excellency. , including the social integration of people threatened with exclusion or the recovery of property. In addition, supporting new entrepreneurs with good ideas, such as a company that has developed an IT application facilitating the administration of communities of owners or another dedicated to the marketing of truffles.
“The capacity of entrepreneurs does not end at retirement, if we have talent we must use it,” he concluded.
The value of family business
After the presentation by Juan Manuel González Serna, a round table took place, moderated by Francisco Javier Martínez, director of La Tribuna de Albacete, in which Adriano García Piquero, general director of RES Services participated; María José Sáez Ortega, director of the Sáez Ortega Group; and Ladislao Castillo Tébar, general director of Pinturas Adoral. Representatives of the latter two companies agreed to emphasize the value of the family business and the path taken to become a leading company in their respective sectors and the importance of having a common culture, based on values and based on training to advance in specialization.
In this sense, Adriano García Piquero also spoke about how a family business like RES becomes a leading multinational in the energy sector.
The celebration of this new edition of the Exporta Tu Valor Forum reflects the entity’s commitment to generating value for entrepreneurs, with the aim of contributing to the social and economic development of our territory.
